Rahul leads Opposition charge to Kerala tops health index: Top stories of the day

Congress president Rahul Gandhi led 114 Opposition MPs to the President and asked for a “proper, independent investigation” of judge BH Loya’s death. Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu were the best-performing states in NITI Aayog Health Index. These were the top stories on Friday. Here is more about them.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is flanked by Opposition leaders as he speaks to the media after meeting the President on Friday.(Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)

Congress president Rahul Gandhi led 114 Opposition MPs to the President and asked for “proper, independent investigation” of judge BH Loya’s death. Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu were the best-performing states in NITI Aayog Health Index. These were the top stories on Friday. Here is more about them.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi led 114 Opposition MPs to President Ramnath Kovind, demanding a Supreme Court-monitored special investigation into judge BH Loya’s death. “We just want to have a proper investigation done by an independent structure that gives us the outcome,” Gandhi said. Justice Loya, who was handling the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, died in November 2014 in Nagpur. Political parties, including the Congress, allege he died in mysterious circumstances.

Kerala on top, UP at bottom in states’ health index

Kerala led 21 large states ranked on their health indicators in a NITI Aayog Index. Punjab and Tamil Nadu followed Kerala. Despite improving its overall score on the index, Uttar Pradesh could not improve its ranking and was placed at the bottom below Bihar and Rajasthan.

IAF officer arrested for sharing secrets with Pakistan

Delhi Police have arrested an Indian Air Force officer on charges of espionage after he was allegedly found passing secret information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. Group Captain Arun Marwaha, 51, was “honeytrapped” and shared information and documents with two Pakistani agents who said they were women and chatted with him on Facebook.

China appears to back Maldives president, says no interference

China said no country should interfere in the Maldives in the name of resolving the ongoing political crisis as pressure from the world community mounted on President Abdulla Yameen to end a state of emergency. Beijing defended the Maldivian regimeas Yameen’s special envoy, Mohamed Saeed, met foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing and briefed him about the developments in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Modi and Trump ‘express concern’ over Maldives in phone call

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone, discussing topics including the political crisis in the Maldives, the war in Afghanistan and the plight of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, the White House said. The Trump administration has launched an effort to deepen military and economic ties with India as a way to balance China’s assertive posture across Asia. Modi and Trump “expressed concern” over the crisis in the Maldives.

A dance teacher at a famous girls’ school in Kolkata was arrested for allegedly sexually harassing a Class 2 student for the last six months, police said. The mother came to know that her daughter was being sexually harassed on Thursday when the child refused to go to school and revealed that she was being harassed by the teacher.

The sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, who is on a historic visit to the South for the Winter Olympics, shook hands with Seoul’s President Moon Jae-in at the opening ceremony. Kim Yo Jong, the first member of the North’s ruling dynasty to visit the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953, met Moon when he arrived for the opening ceremony in a pentagonal arena in Pyeongchang.

US Congress approves bill ending brief govt shutdown

The US House of Representatives approved a bill to fund the federal government through March 23 and to increase overall spending limits over two years, sending the legislation to President Donald Trump. The bill, approved 240-186, would end an hours-long government shutdown that started on Thursday at midnight when current government funding expired.